


Hell’s Flower

by Haze7



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angel/Demon Hybrids, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Hybrids, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Timeskips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:29:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29219520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haze7/pseuds/Haze7
Summary: Skeppy rolled his eyes to the hand patting on his shoulder, the owner of the hand must be someone who couldn’t read a room, not understanding that Skeppy really was not in the mood to give him the attention he was seeking.“Uh, Skeppy… Please wake up,” Bad raised his voice slightly higher than before, his hand now set on shaking his shoulder instead as the patting didn’t work.Skeppy only groaned, hoping that was enough indication that he did not want to be bothered. He didn’t try to hide the scowl on his face, but then remembered that he was laying on his side facing the wall, so Bad definitely would not see it.“Skeppy, please wake up. We have only 10 minutes left for lunch, I don’t know if we can make it,” Bad urged at the same time as Skeppy said, “I’m not hungry.”“Huh? What did you say? Ah, it doesn’t matter, please get up! Our cell is actually the farthest from the cafeteria, so we’ll have to run if we want to make it,” Bad gave him another shake, which he determined was the last straw.“SHUT. UP.” Skeppy slapped the delicate hand away harshly, feeling no remorse. “I’M NOT. HUNGRY.”
Relationships: Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 6
Kudos: 126





	1. Promise

**Author's Note:**

> The depiction of violence warning is mainly for the sections with human experimentations, and it will not be too graphic, but better safe than sorry.  
> Be safe everyone <3

Skeppy, 14 years old

Skeppy rolled his eyes to the hand patting on his shoulder, the owner of the hand must be someone who couldn’t read a room, not understanding that Skeppy really was not in the mood to give him the attention he was seeking.

“Uh, Skeppy… Please wake up,” Bad raised his voice slightly higher than before, his hand now set on shaking his shoulder instead as the patting didn’t work.

Skeppy only groaned, hoping that was enough indication that he did not want to be bothered. He didn’t try to hide the scowl on his face, but then remembered that he was laying on his side facing the wall, so Bad definitely would not see it.

“Skeppy, please wake up. We have only 10 minutes left for lunch, I don’t know if we can make it,” Bad urged at the same time as Skeppy said, “I’m not hungry.”

“Huh? What did you say? Ah, it doesn’t matter, please get up! Our cell is actually the farthest from the cafeteria, so we’ll have to run if we want to make it,” Bad gave him another shake, which he determined was the last straw.

“SHUT. UP.” Skeppy slapped the delicate hand away harshly, feeling no remorse. “I’M NOT. HUNGRY.”

Skeppy could not resist from opening his eyes when he heard a gasp, but he managed to not make any movement, as that might indicate that he cared. He didn’t care. He didn’t.

And then silence filled the room. Skeppy closed his eyes again, thinking that his cellmate maybe already left, finally fed up of him but then his ears picked up a small sob. And then the sound of cloth ruffling, then of clearing of throat.

“I’m sorry… but please promise that you will eat. I don’t know what you’d prefer, so I’ll grab everything that I can so you can choose what you like. We can’t actually sneak in food but I think Ant and I can work something out. So please… please promise you will eat.”

Then Skeppy listened to the sound of footsteps leaving the room, and once he confirmed Bad had left, he let out a deep sigh.

He knew it was not fair to Bad. He knew he shouldn’t be taking out his anger and frustration on his cellmate. After all, Bad was also in the same situation as him. He must have also been kidnapped at one point and was forcefully brought to this facility. The only difference was that Bad had been here longer thus was more accustomed to this place somewhat. He wondered if Bad had ever thought about escaping this place… Maybe he had even attempted it, and had given up due to how difficult it was.

Skeppy’s thought halted, rudely interrupted by the loud rumbling of his stomach. He told himself that he had no appetite, but his stomach was indeed ravenous. A small part of his brain was looking forward to the food his cellmate would bring him.

. ———.

Speaking of his cellmate, Skeppy had only been here for three days, but he had heard a lot of rumours about Bad. Just yesterday when he was scouting around the facility to look for potential exits, he had stumbled upon a pool area where a group of different types of hybrids were lounging in. It was a Saturday, which was a free day for the inhabitants here thus public areas were more crowded than the day before. Skeppy took note of how there were a group of four and another group of seven. After some thinking he decided to approach the smaller group, among them some were looking quite carefree while the others started becoming wary of his presence.

“Hey, you must be the new kid,” a short boy came up to him, offering a wide carefree smile. Now that he was closer, he could see that the boy was not entirely human. He must be a dog-human hybrid, his dog ears perking up as his tail wagged from left to right, waiting for his response.

“Hey, quit staring,” the boy covered his ears, a small blush dusting his cheeks. “I’m Vurb, and as you can tell by my ears, I’m a hybrid. We’re all hybrids actually.” The boy, Vurb, quickly recovered and held out his hand for a handshake.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to,” Skeppy returned the handshake, feeling relieved that Vurb seemed to not mind his staring that much. “I’m Skeppy.”

Then he was introduced to the other three – the tallest among them, who was also half-beaver was called Spifey, and the human-elk hybrid who looked wary of him was called Zelkham, while the one currently swimming in the pool fully transformed into a shark was a boy called Finnster.

“How old are you?” Vurb asked him suddenly, and Skeppy could tell the kid was just genuinely curious so he found himself freely answering without reservation.

“I’m 14. You?”

“What? You’re older than me, then! I’m 11,” Vurb said sheepishly. Then he babbled about the others’ ages while Skeppy paid less attention to him, more focused on Zelkham who was periodically looking at him only to look away when he was caught staring.

“So, you’re not like us, right? What are you exactly?” Vurb asked nonchalantly, taking Skeppy by surprise. “Oh, I meant, you’re not like… a human-animal hybrid like us. You know, like half-human half-animal kinda species? 

“Oh… I’m actually not sure. I think I’m some kind of a… diamond man?” Skeppy stumbled through his words, then pointed to some diamond growths throughout his face and arms, hoping those were enough clarification.

“Wow! That’s so cool!” Vurb exclaimed, his eyes shining with excitement. “Can I touch them?”

“Sure, I guess,” Skeppy entertained the boy, feeling a small smile starting to form on his face looking at the boy’s own expression. Then all of a sudden he felt a little down-hearted as he let his line of thought flow. “Uh… I don’t actually know how I…”

“You don’t need to explain. It’s the same for all of us. We don’t know how we came to be this way either,” Spifey suddenly said, giving him a grim yet honest smile. Skeppy found himself unable to return the gesture. He just hadn’t reached the same level of acceptance as these people had.

“Have you guys… ever thought of escaping– ” before Skeppy could finish his sentence, Vurb unceremoniously slapped his hand over Skeppy’s mouth, his head shaking side to side warning him to stop.

“Are you trying to get us killed? Or worse, punished??” Vurb half-whispered half-shouted. Skeppy only held his hands up in defeat.

“We don’t say the E word here, alright?” Finnster gripped his shoulder, his sudden appearance had Skeppy yelping in shock. The shark hybrid was now in human form, looking like the average boy with the exception of the sharp teeth from what Skeppy could see.

“But – ”

“No buts.” Finnster shook his head. “Don’t your cellmate tell you anything?”

“Anyways…” Spifey cleared his throat. “So… your cellmate is ‘the’ nephalem, right?”

“Nephalem?” Skeppy took notice of Vurb and Zelk visibly exhaling in relief at the change of topic.

“Angel-demon hybrid. He is quite possibly the rarest species here, if not in the entire world.” Zelk who had been quiet the whole time suddenly spoke up.

“Angel? Demon??” Skeppy didn’t even care that his mouth was wide agape, he thought those were just mythological creatures, beings that humans made up so they had someone else to blame for their mistakes. But it made sense, it explained at least all of the exterior appearance of his cellmate.

Bad had a night sky skin, longer canines than normal, very expressive tail and small curved horns on his head only visible if he squinted – definitely features of a demon. But then, his glowing bright white eyes that were so otherworldly, his silky translucent black hair, the floating ring above his head and the iridescent small wings on his back – maybe those were the features of an angel. Skeppy had never seen an angel before so he wouldn’t know.

“Did he tell you anything at all?” Finnster asked with his arms crossed. Skeppy thought of the answer for a second.

“Well, he tried…”

“What do you mean?”

“The first day I got here, I was just… too angry at the time to listen to anything. But he did tell me how this place works. We each have our own schedules for the weekdays and the weekends are free days… and that we can’t leave our cell on the weekdays except during mealtimes and according to our schedules.” Skeppy rattled off what he understood from Bad’s explanation.

“Huh… your cellmate could certainly be clearer with the ‘schedule’ part, but that is basically how things work here,” Finnster nodded.

“When will your ‘session’ start?” Spifey asked.

“Session? I don’t know, I think I’ll get my full schedule next week.”

“You see… the ‘session’… we call it the session but what it really means is, what we’re talking about is…” Spifey seemed to have a hard time explaining the ‘session’ that Skeppy didn’t think he wanted to know anymore.

“It means, they’ll take you to their research lab. For their experiments. And you’re the subject,” Zelk said stoically. “We’re all experimental subjects.”

Skeppy was speechless. He had an inkling that something sinister was going on, considering all the different types of human species and living beings gathered here. But he thought all they did was have a humane discussion to just gather more data for whatever scientific research they have, maybe get a cell sample with consent or something like that. Not literal human experimentations.  
Though deep inside he already knew, considering he needed to be kidnapped to be here, and especially judging by the heavy look on his cellmate’s face whenever it was time for him to leave for his ‘session’.

“Then how can you… How can you be content living this way? Has no one ever thought of…”

“We all did. Trust me, everyone here has thought of the E word at some point. But those who attempted it never made it,” Spifey explained with his gaze down. Skeppy had a feeling that ‘not making it’ actually meant that they were no longer in this world. He felt sick.

“It’s not that bad here, anyway. We still have some freedom somewhat. I mean, in terms of entertainment, we have all these facilities – this pool, the garden, the library... at least we can hang out like this, you know,” Vurb blabbered and Skeppy could only listen silently, not wanting to ruin whatever they had built up here. He respected the fact that they were trying to keep each others’ spirits up in this circumstance, and was starting to see why his cellmate was always so… optimistic. Because they didn’t have a choice. So they made the best out of the situation. Skeppy hoped he could do the same one day, though he didn’t think he could last very long.

“There’s the new basketball court too! It’s quite big from what I heard from the guards,” Vurb continued but Skeppy’s mind was elsewhere.

“Do we stay here forever? I haven’t really seen any adults except for the guards, the janitors, and the scientists…”

“Well, you brought up a good point,” Zelk replied. “No one actually knows, but yeah, we’re all kids here. The oldest is the Carbonara guy or whatever his name is, I think. He’s 19 this year.”

“His name’s Carbonado,” Finnster said rolling his eyes at Zelk. “Now that I think about it, you’re probably the same species as him, Skeppy. He also has some kind of a gemstone mutation. Or whatever it is you two have going on.”

“How did you know this, Finn?” Vurb asked, impressed.

“I spoke to him a couple times. He’s always in the library on Friday mornings. Though I’d be careful about what to ask, he can be a little hot-headed sometimes,” Finnster pointedly looked at Skeppy so he only nodded in response.

“Hey, isn’t Skeppy’s cellmate the oldest here? Or at least he’s been here the longest. I heard you say this before, Finn,” Spifey asked which picked Skeppy’s interest.

That was when he learnt a lot more about Bad. Apparently from what Finnster had heard from Carbonado, Bad had been here at least a year before Carbonado, and Carbonado was only 8 years old when he was brought here. That meant that he had been here for 11 years, and yet according to him, Bad never changed in terms of his appearance, he still looked like he was 15 – 16 years old from 11 years ago until now. Skeppy had nothing to say to that. If what Carbonado said was true, then Bad should be at least 20 years old now. But Bad only looked like he was older than Skeppy by maybe a year or two, and they were almost the same height.

But it did make sense if Bad was a Nephalem. Maybe they age slower than normal humans, or maybe they don’t age at all. What if they were immortals? Skeppy didn’t know how to feel about sharing his cell with an immortal being.

“He’s a nice guy,” Zelk suddenly said, his eyes looking softer than before which took Skeppy by surprise. “Too nice, actually. He helped me before.”

Skeppy thought of what Zelk said. He could see it, could tell that his cellmate was genuinely a kind person from the short time he had spent with him. Bad was very, very polite, and he put up with Skeppy’s angry fit so patiently and Skeppy had only given him his cold shoulder. In fact, the rationale he gave himself for acting like an angry child all the time in the cell was that Bad was too… kind. Irritatingly happy, cheery, kind and content while being trapped in this place. How could he not feel angry and frustrated? If it’s true that Bad had been here the longest, how could he still have a sincere smile?

Maybe being so attentive and caring to the point of being clingy and overbearing was Bad’s way of coping. Who was Skeppy to judge how others cope? 

Then a thought crossed his mind. What if he did something to make Bad mad, like maybe pull a prank or two, rile him up a little. Maybe Skeppy would finally understand and relate to Bad more if he saw expressions other than happiness and kindness on the nephalem’s face.

\- . ———.

Skeppy didn’t even realize he had fallen asleep. He woke up to the smell of food wafting from the table at the corner of the bedroom, and saw containers of what looked like sandwiches and noodles. Bad was nowhere to be found, the nephalem must be off for his session. Skeppy was a little nervous about that, about his own sessions which would start tomorrow.

He was determined to have a proper talk with Bad. After all, he would be stuck with his cellmate for a long time. He would never give up on finding ways to escape, maybe he could get Bad to join in, the nephalem had been here the longest so he must know a lot about the facility.

He opened the containers and ravished the content in a minute, all the while pondering and cataloguing the questions he could ask Bad later. He definitely should apologize first for taking out his anger on him. Then thank him for the food – the nephalem even brought in fruits like grapes and an orange. This wavered Skeppy’s heart.

Bad was so unnecessarily thoughtful.

When he finished filling his stomach, Skeppy headed to the washroom to clean the containers in the sink, wishing they had a kitchen. Maybe whoever brought them here didn’t want anyone to hide stocks of food supplies, or they didn’t want dangerous kitchen appliances and equipments like knives to be used as weapons.

Skeppy was deep in thought about the sick mastermind behind this facility when he heard the sound of warping, signifying the guards disabling the netherite and aetherite bars at the entrance of their cell. Bad must be done with his session now.

Skeppy rushed to the entrance and felt his heart drop at the sight.

Bad was on the floor face down, struggling to breathe. His panting was so loud it echoed through the entrance hallway. The guards who escorted Bad were long gone.

Skeppy took a full second to realize he should be doing something to help. He moved closer and kneeled down, but he was at a loss of what to do next.

“Bad?” Skeppy croaked, then a little louder, “Bad??”

“I’m sorry…” Bad gasped, then took a shuddering breath. “I can’t…” Bad held up a hand and Skeppy took that as a sign to help the nephalem up. When Skeppy’s finger barely brushed his shoulder, Bad hissed in pain leaving him hanging his hands in the air.

“I’m so sorry,” Skeppy apologized profusely and decided to wait until the wave of pain stopped so Bad could catch his breath.

“No… it’s okay,” Bad offered a weak smile after a while, his eyes shimmering with tears held back. His breathing had now calmed a little though. “It’s just, my shoulders and back are hurting so much. So maybe you could help hold my waist instead?”

“Of course,” Skeppy set to firmly hold Bad’s waist from behind him and slowly lifted him up, which was not hard at all considering the nephalem’s small body. “What happened?”

When Bad was fully standing and didn’t seem like he would topple over any minute, Skeppy let him go but still held up his hands around the older to be safe. As they took small careful steps to the bedroom, Bad answered his question in between gasps of breath.

“I didn’t perform too well, today,” Bad wiped at his forehead. “This is like, only the third time that I’ve tried flying with my wings,” he flapped the small iridescent wings on his back and immediately scrunched his face in pain.  
“Ouch… Really shouldn’t have done that.”

They finally reached their bedroom and Skeppy helped Bad onto the bed, the nephalem heaving a big sigh of relief once he was settled on the bed, lying flat on his stomach.

“So… in the session today, the scientists had you use your wings?” Skeppy asked as he sat at the edge of Bad’s bed.

“Yeah, I’m really not used to flying to be honest. Not to mention, I’m kind of scared of heights,” Bad laughed weakly. “And they set this goal, right? Like I need to reach this speed, or this height to pass. And I most certainly failed all of the tests… I did worse and kept doing even worse than before so they…” Bad choked out the last word, and suddenly the tears were rolling fast down his cheeks.  
“I’m sorry…” Now Bad was full on sobbing and Skeppy could not even rub his back to comfort in fear of eliciting more pain. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Skeppy didn’t even know what he was saying okay to. He just wanted Bad to feel better. He settled on holding Bad’s cold hands, gathering them together and keeping them warm. Before he realized it, he was already lying down beside Bad, brushing the delicate hands with his thumb, his own eyes blurry with tears.

Each time Skeppy heard a wince of pain from Bad and a hard squeeze through his hands, he cried harder, which made Bad cry harder. It was so painful to him that he couldn’t give Bad a hug. So painful.  
Occassionally he would find Bad squeezing their hands so hard with his eyes shut tight, as if in prayer.

After what felt like a few hours, the wailing finally turned into small whimpers and sobs. Skeppy didn’t remember if he had ever cried this hard in his life. He was just, letting out all the anger and frustration along with the sadness.

In the haze of his mind, he registered Bad clearing his throat and gazing at him fondly.

“Thank you, for crying with me,”he giggled so Skeppy did too. “You’re so cute.” Bad said light-heartedly but it made Skeppy blush, hard. “You’re like a little brother to me, a cute little brother,”He giggled again.

Skeppy could only stare. Only now he was starting to notice the little details on Bad’s face, being this close. They were… beautiful. How even his eyelashes were the same translucent black hair, even the eyebrows seemed to glimmer under the faint light. And the most enrapturing, the glowing otherworldly white eyes, radiating light and kindness.

“I’m sorry,” Skeppy suddenly heard himself say. He was not ready but he thanked his mouth for moving first.

“For what?” Bad tilted his head, his silky glasslike black hair falling onto his face. Skeppy thoughtlessly brushed it aside.

“I was being a jerk before. I was angry at you for no reason,” Skeppy admitted, feeling ashamed of himself that he scrunched his eyes shut.

“Skeppy…” He felt Bad stroke his hair gently, “I forgive you. I think I understand how you were feeling.”

Skeppy opened his eyes to find a sincere smile gracing Bad’s lips. 

“I also wanna say… uh… thank you for bringing lunch for me,” he said hurriedly. “It was really good.” He scratched at the back of his neck while waiting for a response.

“You’re welcome, and please, never do that again, okay?” Bad chastised him with several taps on his nosetips. “You should never skip meals. Bad Skeppy.”

Skeppy only laughed at that.

“How are you feeling now, Bad?”

“Still very sore, but much, much better than before,” Bad assured.

“That’s good to hear,” Skeppy reached out to hold Bad’s hand again, now no longer cold.

“To be honest, I’ve been casting a healing spell. It’s not perfect, but I’m still learning,” Bad proudly proclaimed. “And it also leaves me feeling sooo tired,” Bad’s voice teetered down into a whisper, his eyes already drooping from exhaustion.

“That’s awesome. Is it magic?” Skeppy was curious but he held back, he could ask more questions tomorrow.

“I guess so… Honestly I don’t know much about it, I actually have no idea how I knew I could do it, but that’s why I’ve been going to the library. There’s only a few books on healing magic though,” Bad pouted, his brows furrowing in thought. “Hey, you could help me find more books, right? We can go to the library together!” The nephalem said excitedly, all signs of exhaustion suddenly gone.

“Sure! I’ve been wanting to go there too,” Skeppy felt his own mouth forming a smile, the excitement was infectious.

“You can meet Antfrost and Awesamdude! Antfrost is a catboy! Can you believe it? He’s a catboy!” Bad was so ecstatic that Skeppy couldn’t help but only cackle at that. “And Awesamdude, he’s sooo cool. He’s very smart too. He has eidetic memory, I heard someone say he’s a savant. And what’s weird is that he is half creeper and – ”

Skeppy didn’t even care that he was staring right now. Everything about Bad was suddenly so… mesmerizing. His unique dulcet voice, his wild and expressive hand motions, and especially those shimmering white orbs. Maybe, just maybe, Skeppy would be content being trapped in this hellhole as long as he could see those eyes.

“ – because we all have different schedules. But we can definitely meet them next Saturday, hopefully.” Bad apparently had finished rambling, unfortunately. “Skeppy?”

“Bad…”

“Skeppy, what’s wrong?” Bad asked softly, yet it tore at Skeppy’s heart.

“I’m scared.” Skeppy didn’t know what exactly he was scared of, but he was sure it had something to do with not wanting to lose this moment.

“Oh, Skeppy…” Bad pulled him in a loose yet warm hug and continued to stroke through his hair. “I really, really hope that your session will go by so quick, you won’t even remember what happened. I pray that it will be easy, everything will go smoothly, but if it won’t… Just know that the bad things will definitely end. And I promise I’ll be here, waiting for your return. Can we promise each other, that we’ll wait for the other’s return?” Bad’s voice was shaky, and Skeppy could tell that the nephalem was also seeking comfort. This told Skeppy that whatever the session would entail, it would be something really bad. But at the same time, knowing that he had Bad with him, going through the same pain together, and could find each other at the end of the day, he felt relieved. He felt like he already made it through the session or whatever hurdle that would come in their way.

“I promise I’ll also be here waiting for your return, Bad,” Skeppy swore to Bad and to himself. 

“Thank you,” the nephalem couldn’t help but burst into tears again, the promise uttered by the antropomorphic diamond weighed so heavy and so light at the same time. Regardless, the nephalem would hold it close to his heart, praying and praying so he would never ever lose it.


	2. Daytime Lantern

**Skeppy, 14 years old**

Skeppy tried to calm his racing heart. He just saw Bad off for the nephalem’s session, and was now waiting for his turn. Sure enough, two guards appeared in front of his cell, ready to escort him to his respective lab. To his first session. _To his first (torture) session._

_‘No matter what, DO NOT lose hope. I believe in you Skeppy. I believe you will get through this, and you will come back here to me. And I WILL be here, waiting for you.’_

That’s right. Bad said he would make it through with those strong determined eyes, so Skeppy swore he would stay strong. Besides, Bad would be waiting for him at the end.

Once the netherite-aetherite bars were disabled, Skeppy stepped out of the cell and kept his gaze straight forward, determined to not let any fear show. In his mind he kept repeating the words Bad had whispered to him, like a mantra.

He let the guards handcuff his wrists and followed them quietly to his lab, all the while his eyes tracked and memorized the layout of the place, only to fail once the paths started to become more complicated. He told himself he would have more chances to remember the path so he didn’t beat himself up just yet.

After what felt like at least ten minutes of walking, they finally reached the destination. They stopped in front of a metal door which Skeppy noted looked exactly the same as all the other doors they walked past in this long hallway. He wondered if Bad was anywhere close and realized that they didn’t encounter anyone on the way here. Maybe they were separated into categories of hybrids, and thus Skeppy would probably not see anyone other than himself and Carbonado here as subjects with gemstone mutation.

Skeppy only watched as one of the guard released his handcuff while the other spoke through the intercom on the wall in a low voice. He caught his designation plastered on his arm sleeve being spoken: ‘SUBJECT 17N-SK3P’. Then the metal door opened into a small empty room with another door at the end.

“Get in,” the guard who released his handcuff instructed, Skeppy couldn’t read anything from his face as it was covered with a mask. Once he entered the room, the other guard, who Skeppy noted had a birthmark on his temple, looked at him with… sympathy. He thought he heard him say ‘be strong’, or maybe it was just his imagination. Then the metal door closed behind him, leaving him alone in the room.

Before he could ponder on the possibility that maybe, just maybe there were nice adults here, the door in front of him opened.

“Come in,” he heard a voice say and he hesitantly walked into the room. When he saw all the people in white coats talking to each other in hushed whispers, and the table with straps in the middle, and the various tools lining up on the table beside it, and the blindingly bright lamp overhanging them all, it finally hit him.

He stopped in his track. He choked on his breath, cold shiver ran through his spine and all he could think about was RUN. He needed to escape.

Before his mind could catch up to what his body was doing, he was already pinned to the floor by the adults and then lifted onto the cold table. He had no idea where the strength was coming from, but it seemed like he would never stop his screaming and thrashing. He faintly registered a needle being pierced through his skin all the while a woman who was pushing his forehead down and keeping his head in place whispered something harshly in his ear.

He didn’t want to hear what she was saying. He desperately tried to hold onto the words Bad had whispered to him, but even those were fading away along with his consciousness.

.———.

Skeppy woke up to multiple wires and lines attached to his body, his arms and legs tightly strapped to the table.

“You’re finally awake,” a bespectacled man in white coat spoke from beside him with a cheery voice, Skeppy could almost see the wide smile through the mask on his face. He noted that he was alone in the room with the man. “I’m the head of the department dealing with your kind, dear subject 17N-SK3P. I know your fellow friends call you Skeppy. I must say, it is adorable how you come up with names from your designations. You may call me Dr. N.”

“What… what are you doing to me?” _What are you gonna take away from me?_

“Well, the plan for today is to only obtain samples, and we are halfway through that, but the main agenda is to have your full cooperation for our subsequent meetings, Skeppy,” the way Dr. N pronounced his name made his stomach turn.

“And if I said no?” Skeppy asked, biting his lip to still the trembling.

“Then you are only going to make things harder for yourself. But if you agree to cooperate with me, I wouldn’t mind sharing some stories with you!” Dr. N suddenly got closer, towering over him from the side to stare right into his eyes, only to then pull back and adjusted his glasses.

“What k- kind of stories?” Skeppy stuttered.

“Hmmm… I personally dislike stories with happy endings, so not those… Oh! What if I tell you an interesting story right now?” Dr. N moved to pull a chair closer and sat down, not waiting for Skeppy’s response before continuing. “Have you ever thought of how you possess no memories from before you were brought here? Well… that’s because we erased those!”

Skeppy thought of the fact that he didn’t even remember his own name, if he had any parents and family, where he used to live… but somehow he knew his age. Knew that he really liked grapes.

“You still retain important knowledge that makes you, you, such as your age, your personality, preference, your basic nature. In other words, we can control which parts of memories we want deleted. Isn’t that amazing? We have a memory deletion machine!

“But… there’s a caveat. Let’s say… a subject is a little disobedient. Maybe it really hates this one particular activity and causes trouble every time the activity comes up. We can use the machine and snap! Cut off those parts. Now the subject feels neutral towards it and we can do this again and again. However… if you repeat the same process too many times, there will be less and less to delete, and you will eventually delete something important. In the end, what will be left is the husk, devoid of emotion and personality.”

Skeppy’s mind was reeling, a thousand thoughts running through his brain but he kept his mouth shut.

“Interesting story, right? Did you get the point of it? Wouldn’t want only a shell of you left, would you? This is why you will cooperate.” Dr. N stated with complete confidence and Skeppy had no reason, no strength to object.

“Do not fret too much, Skeppy. We will take care of you. After all, you are a precious diamond,” Dr. N stood up and headed to the door. “I’ll see you again.”

Skeppy watched as the scientist left the room. When he was sure nobody else was going to come in, he allowed his heavy eyes to close. He shook his head to get a grip on himself, he could feel himself losing into the haziness. He had no time to be going blank. He should be thinking.

Were they all told about ‘the memory machine’? Maybe that was why Bad, Vurb and the others were so accepting of being here. No one would want to lose any more of their memories. It’s like losing a part of you. For now he would obey whatever Dr. N wanted of him.

It was a start. He could certainly gain more information from the doctor but he should be wary of giving out information as well. There’s also the possibility that not all of the things said by him was the truth. The doctor also had full control of the conversation and it honestly intimidated him. It felt like the doctor could see right into his mind and knew exactly what he was thinking at any moment.

But he would brave the mind battle in search of the truth. He needed to know the purpose behind this facility, and what would happen to all of the subjects here at the end, and why were they all only children and teenagers. Then he remembered what Finn told him – Carbonado should be 19 this year, and Bad might be even older despite his appearance. Maybe if he just kept an eye on the two of them, especially Carbonado and see what would happen once he became an adult, there were several possibililties that he could think of – either he would be released, though most unlikely unless they erased his memories of the facility, OR he would stay and be used in the experiments until he died, OR he would somehow be converted to become one of the workers here. Who knew if they already invented a brainwashing technology and the adults here were all actually former subjects…

If that’s the truth, that only made his desire to escape even stronger.

He tried recalling his schedule for the week, he already memorized it to plan his time better. Today he would talk to Bad about all the information from Dr. N, about the memory machine and Bad’s own knowledge about this facility. And because his next session was in two days, probably the time needed for the scientists to analyze his DNA samples, he could use the free time to scout the place more.

Before he could plan the specifics of how he would spend his time tomorrow, a masked person in white coat entered the room and hastily removed the straps on his wrists and legs, and ordered him to leave the room. He was greeted by the same guards, handcuffed again and was led back to his cell.

He felt utter relief to be back behind those bars, still intact physically and somewhat mentally. It was only 12.30 pm, not even lunch time yet which would usually start at 1.30. He looked around in the cell and sure enough, Bad was nowhere to be found. Skeppy hoped Bad’s session this time was as quick as his was and less harsh than before.

.———.

Skeppy was lounging in the living room on the small couch, flipping through pages of an astronomy book he’d found while letting his stomach digest his lunch. Bad had left a variety of genres of books throughout the cell which he must have amassed from the library. Skeppy had already read all the superhero comic books and was now left with the non-fictions. He was just about to reach the section about Jupiter’s moons when he heard the familiar sound of the cell bars disabling. _Bad’s back._

Skeppy didn’t know why he was pretending to be immersed in the book when all he wanted was to see the other. But when he heard not one, but two pairs of footsteps coming in, he immediately rushed to the entrance.

They were the guards’. And one of them was carrying a person, a human boy. _That’s not Bad._

Skeppy could only watch as the guard entered his and Bad’s bedroom and gently laid the human boy down on Bad’s bed. He recognized the guard, the same guard who escorted him before with the birthmark on his temple.

“You’re Skeppy, right? Bad’s been telling me about you. He will… be in this state for a whole week, but he should be up soon,” the guard whispered to him after making sure that the other guard was not listening, standing outside the room.

“This is… Bad?” Skeppy asked gesturing to the unconscious human boy, his skin pale and his hair silky auburn. The guard only nodded in response and promptly excused himself when the other guard peeked in.

Now Skeppy was left alone with… _a human Bad?_ He was so confused. Do nephalems have many forms?

Before he realized it, he was already lying down on his bed, his eyes never leaving the other’s sleeping form. This Bad certainly had the same facial shape as the nephalem Bad, similar body size or maybe slightly smaller, minus the horn, the halo, the tail and the wings. He was just a normal human. And he still looked beautiful.

Then Skeppy noticed his breathing becoming less rhythmic, and soon after blue-green heterochromic eyes peeked out from underneath the eyelids, blinking several times and squinting.

“Skeppy? Is that you?” This Bad murmured with the familiar drowsy voice, finally convincing Skeppy that this really was Bad.

“It’s me,” Skeppy answered simply when all he wanted to do was blast the other with a thousand questions.

“Can you get me my glasses? On that table I think,” Bad pointed to a table in the corner of the room. “I have myopia… I’m short-sighted in my human form for some reason,” he laughed light-heartedly and then thanked Skeppy after putting on the glasses.

“Bad… can you tell me everything? About this place. About you. Why are you… how are you suddenly a human?” Skeppy blurted out the foremost question in his head. Bad thought hard for a second before finally answering with a sad smile.

“Alright. I’ll tell you everything I know about this place, and about me… But where do I even start?”

“How are you suddenly a human?” Skeppy repeated fast because it seemed like Bad was trying to dismiss the question. From the long time it took Bad to answer, Skeppy was starting to think that maybe Bad just didn’t like talking about his origin. But who would?

“It’s a long story. But to put it simply, apparently one of my parent was not fully an angel – they were half-angel half-human… so I’m actually half-demon, a quarter angel and a quarter human. I only know this from Dr. E, the head scientist for my session. It’s not like I know anything about my parents.”

“So it’s the same for everyone. No one has any memories from their past before they’re brought here.” Skeppy moved to sit up and instead lay his back against the wall.

“Yes. And I assume you must have heard all about the memory thingy, they threaten us with our memories,” Bad said fiercely which took Skeppy aback. “And the fact that I’m in my human form right now…” Bad paused to inhale shakily. “It means they just deleted my memory of the session today. And I have no idea why. It could either be that I knew something they didn’t want me to know… Or that the session was just… too much for me and so my human form came out as a defense mechanism.”

“What do you mean ‘defense mechanism’?”

“I don’t know why, but in this form, I am really just a regular human. It’s like all my nephalem side never existed, completely hidden. So the scientists won’t be able to get anything from me, not even a sample. I’m pretty much useless to them now. Maybe it’s a good thing. Now I have this whole week free to do whatever I want,” Bad smiled sadly.

“So you lose all your abilities in this form? Like your healing abilities?”

“Pretty much, yeah. That’s the downside of this form. My healing gets slower, even my senses feel weaker. I’m just a normal human now.”

Bad then told him how he had once been in this human form for a very long time, almost a month. He surmised that it happened because he was still feeling the lingering fear from a particularly harsh session even after the memory machine worked its magic. He thought he was finally free from the sessions, but unfortunately the scientists had found a way to induce his nephalem side to come out. Bad was very reluctant to talk about it so Skeppy decided to not pursue the topic further.

“How old are you, Bad?” Skeppy suddenly found himself asking. Bad had only blinked at him before answering.

“That… is a good question. I actually don’t remember, but I should be at least… wait, you’re either going to laugh at me, or be really weirded out when I say this,” Bad wrung his hands, clearly uncomfortable.

“I promise I won’t,” Skeppy immediately said, now regretting asking the question. “Actually, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’ll tell you. I don’t want us to keep secrets from each other,” Bad said determinedly. “I’m at least 250, I think. Weird, right?” Bad lowered his gaze to the floor.

“You’re REALLY old, wow,” Skeppy failed to stop his running mouth, so he mentally slapped his face. He was just about to apologize when he received a big pillow straight to his face. _Ouch._

“I’m considered young as a nephalem, okay! I think. I don’t remember anything from the past 200 years anyway, so they don’t count! I’m practically a baby!” Bad flustered, cheeks reddening.

“A baby, huh?” Skeppy smirked and received another pillow to the face. “Hey, that hurts!”

“That’ll learn ya,” Bad said smugly. Something about that expression made Skeppy feel giddy inside and before long he was already on the other’s bed, tickling his sides. This human Bad was certainly very small, but despite his appearance, he did put up a fight. At some point he had successfully kicked Skeppy off of the bed, only to apologize profusely at the realization that he just kicked his friend. Skeppy had only laughed, he didn’t think he had ever laughed this hard in a while.

“The look on your face!” Skeppy sputtered in between gasps of breath but the next thing he heard immediately stopped his laughing fit.

_Grrrr._

It was a growl, but it was more purr than growl. Skeppy just stared at the red fuming face with his mouth open for one full second.

“Did you just… growl? Or was that a purr?”

Another purr-growl but this time he was also smacked in the face hard with a pillow. Skeppy didn’t have enough time to fully close his eyes when that happened so now he was dealing with irritated watery eyes. He now knew to not tease Bad consecutively lest he wanted pillows to his face.

At some point they had also pushed their beds together in the middle, probably to avoid another incident where a certain Skeppy might be kicked off the bed again.

Afterwards, Bad had asked him about his own session, and seemed so relieved, even more relieved than Skeppy that his went by so quick.

When Skeppy tried bringing up the topic of escaping the facility, Bad was quick to shut the topic down.

“We’ll talk about it later, okay? There’s a safer place for that, not here,” Bad reassured, whispering. “We can also talk about everything we’ve gathered – what Awesamdude, Antfrost and I have found out about this facility there too. Now that we both have the next few days free, I can work something out.”

Apparently ‘work something out’ meant having an outsider’s aid, specifically the ‘kind guard’s help, as Bad would call him, to disable the cell bars so they could leave the cell outside of their scheduled sessions. During dinner, Bad arranged the timing with Awesamdude and Antfrost discreetly while Skeppy silently watched. After several hand signs were thrown out coupled with weird facial expressions communicated by the three, they came to a decision to meet in the library in two days after lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there’s no askers (hehe), but just wanna share this amazing soundtrack from Nier Automata called City Ruins (Shade) that I’ve been listening to on loop while writing this. Give it a listen if you want.  
> <3


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